ATLANTA, Sept. 11, 2013 - Dell SecureWorks, an industry leader in information security services, has been approved as a PCI Forensic Investigator (PFI) by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Council. Dell SecureWorks is one of only 11 PFIs in the U.S. With an entire practice dedicated to Incident Response (IR) and Digital Forensics, Dell SecureWorks can service any entity within the U.S. and can be on site within 24 hours.

Any entity that stores, processes, or transmits payment card data and is the subject of compromise affecting payment card transactions or cardholder data is required to use a PCI Forensic Investigator to perform a forensic investigation. Dell SecureWorks can investigate and remediate breaches for organizations of all sizes.

The average cost of a cyber breach in the U.S. is $5.4 million per organization and $188 per compromised record, according to the Ponemon Institute 2013 Cost of Data Breach Study. Preparing for an incident and having specialized responders at the ready can save a compromised U.S. organization as much as $55 per record, according to the study.

"When a security breach occurs, response time must be measured in minutes, not hours or days," said Jeff Schilling, director of Incident Response at Dell SecureWorks. "Time is money, money that the intruders will take from your customers as they expand their foothold in your network and exploit more of your payment card data. You've got to move quickly to identify the intrusion, contain the exploitation of your PCI data and eradicate the threat from your environment. Too many companies don't find all the threat presence without help, and continue to hemorrhage payment card data."

In addition to a long list of stringent requirements to become a PFI, a company must be a Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) and have existing relationships with appropriate law enforcement agencies.

About Dell SecureWorks:

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more. Recognized as an industry leader by top analysts, Dell SecureWorks provides world-class information security services to help organizations of all sizes protect their IT assets, comply with regulations and reduce security costs. For more information, visit www.secureworks.com.